1st paperback ed. Includes bibliographical references (page 207) and index. For designers working in every medium, layout is arguably the most basic, and most important, element. Effective layout is essential to communication and enables the end user to not only be drawn in with an innovative design but to digest information easily. Making and Breaking the Grid is a comprehensive layout design workshop that assumes that in order to effectively break the rules of grid-based design, one must first understand those rules and see them applied to real-world projects. Text reveals top designers work in process and rationale. Projects with similar characteristics are linked through a simple notational system that encourages exploration and comparison of structure ideas. Also included are historical overviews that summarize the development of layout concepts, both grid-based and non-grid based, in modern design practice. Thoughts on structure : an introduction -- Using this book -- Making the grid. Coming to order: a brief history of the grid in modern graphic design -- Grid basics: a workshop in structural designing -- Exhibits: grid-based design projects -- Breaking the grid. Historical interlude: the seeds of deconstruction -- Exploring other options: a guide to grid deconstruction and nonstructural design approaches -- Exhibits: grid deconstructions and non-grid-based projects -- Appendices. The first section, Making the Grid, begins with an exposition of basic grid types, illustrating and defining the most common ones used in traditional design work. A selection of relevant projects shows how these grids organize information appropriate to each application and can provide a framework for composition.
The second part of the book, Breaking the Grid, focuses on designs that challenge grid-based notions of organization. A brief discussion addressing the breaking down of structure is followed by a second set of relevant projects - this time, showing the grid reworked or discarded in favor of alternative compositional approaches.
Working designers and students alike will find this book a valuable reference, as well as a source of inspiration for new approaches to laying out their projects.

Samara Timothy

Making and breaking the grid : a graphic design layout workshop